i. because. many question the sudden resignation of pope benedict the sixteenth that shock waves reverberate throughout the catholic world. french forces reclaimed the city of. count from the city after a surprise attack by militants almost spoils french claims of a victorious campaign. to russia's kumi republic with rescuers still looking for one possible survivor.

with you online on screen twenty four hours a day the vatican has announced that pope benedict the sixteenth will step down on february twenty eighth citing old age eighty five year old will become the first head of the catholic church to resign from the post in nearly six centuries. well it's described by one cardinal as a lightning bolt from a clear blue sky it certainly caught some of benedict's most senior advisers on the hope his spokes person said that it being left frankly flabbergasted by the news that the pope will be stepping down at the end of the month now benedict is eighty

five years old obviously not a young man but the cardinals knew that when they elected him and he was supposed to be there for a lot longer than this i think they would have thought it's not unprecedented but it's not really done that often in fact the last time a pope stepped down was six hundred years ago it's certainly not been an easy ride it's not been the longest papacy just under eight years but in that time the certainly being plenty of drama no nice includes one of the one of the reasons that benedict said that he has to step down as he thought his age made him physically and in some cases mentally unable to deal with the everyday life of being the pope in the modern world one of the series of scandals that we've seen involve the so-called vatileaks similar to wiki leaks a series of documents that were distributed online which well apparently showed a c.v. a series of shady dealings done by the vatican this type of thing of course not

something your average eighty five year old has to deal with but they include some quite serious allegations including the fact that the vatican colluded with silvio berlusconi's government in italy to try and get pressure taken off the church of rome for paying taxes on properties which it owned those also list that was published of well less than savory clients for the vatican bank which included some people alleged to be sicilian mafia bosses and of course one of the major scandals that is will be remembered for benedict's papacy concerns child abuse and his previous. this job before he became pope he was essentially regarded as the john paul of seconds papal bulldog he was the defender of the doctrine of fair for faith and not role he is accused of covering up sexual abuse scandals all around

the world but also here in germany in fact in recent times there's been further controversy over this as the church here in germany canceled an investigation into child abuses that ranged back to the nineteen forty since stopped that investigation apparently according to the man who was conducting it because they weren't happy with what would be made public so there's certainly been controversy and it will be something that's picked over for a long time to come after benedict steps down at the end of this month. the director of the national secular society keith pushes wood says there's more to the official explanation of the pope's resignation. i think the dark triangle side has been an absolute catastrophe for the church it's actually lost. its authority in many parts of the world when you say that you're going to. oppose politicians trying to bring in say same sex marriage laws and you invest or

your authority on that and then you lose as if as effectively happened in those important catholic countries like spain portugal brazil. and about to happen indeed in england and scotland in france then you actually lose the your authority it's more than just losing the fight so that's been a catastrophe for the church and church attendance has declined it in amazing rate and i think the child abuse scandal has been something that pope benedict has never recovered from he's been involved in it personally through the c.d.f. prefecture for twenty five years and in fact he's brought more into the vatican and try to cover it up more and more and more so i think his his papacy will be seen as a major setback and a very bad papacy for the church for in-depth analysis of the pope's tenure as well

as all the latest reaction to his resignation announcement head right to our web site www dot com. french and malian troops have regained control of girl after islamist militants launched a surprise attack on what is northern mali is most populous city authorities say three civilians were killed during sunday's fighting this comes after recent claims by france that the military campaign is almost complete and as local correspondent gonzalo want to report the joint forces are struggling to fully secure the region still occupied by insurgents. the situation in mali is obviously going to have a gruesome ending there are more than enough indications of that last friday the country was shaken by the very first terrorist attack in its history according to the witness report of what was carried out by a fifteen year old suicide bomber of arab descent the bomber was the only one killed after the detonation of a few hours later responsibility for the attack was claimed by the motor watch

jihadists one thing to remember here is that this is a vast desert territory and therefore it is very difficult to control this attack is just another example confirming that despite the news reports of the french army having taken over gal timbuktu into doubt there is still a long way to go before jihadists are ousted from the country in severe artie's crew was given access to the civil defense camps where volunteers and civilians are preparing to fight against the jihadists the f.l. and they and uganda kori local pro-government militia movements that account for a total of two thousand eight hundred operatives but do not support the strategy chosen by the french in mali and joining forces in fighting the terrorists completely love we shared the same goals but what they did was a really bad service to us there was not really about the army itself al qaeda had been operating on mali and territory for a number of years now they have all those and they keep getting more by kidnapping

white people for ransom drones pays them to have the citizens returned and then the terrorists have cash to buy weapons if we talk about al qaeda there's no way the army can fight it because that she it's terrorism in action and those paramilitary who know the terrain well say fighting a war they cannot take part in is meaningless one thing all these paramilitary groups have in common is their patriotism and zeal to protect their country and drive away the narco terrorists but this is a losing fight given the financial resources and ammunition stock they have. i'm ready to go it's all lengths i'm raised to give my life right now to save my family up there in the north because we're all here have families i believe france will stop these attacks for a while or and the french troops leave they will start all over again because the criminals are still out there hiding them on the civilians not all of them have been caught really need to be given the mandate to complete this mission and our

own we're ready for it although we can do it because we grew up in the north we know the terrain and the people so we're the only ones who can stop them and find them in the villages and the desert where we know every corner and every part of land. over all while the jihadists forces are taking over their land kidnapping people and using suicide bombers to fight for their cause the civilian population remains the country's most vulnerable group. the ongoing mollen conflict was among the topics artie's going to church can discuss with russia's ambassador to the un vitaly churkin the full interview will air at eighteen forty five g.m.t. and is also available for you anytime on our website dot com now here's a quick preview for you. the question of the spring was the dramatic events in libya. we're in the course of the crisis of course lots of weapons were brought into libya and there was a lot of there were lots of weapons of as it is but still many more weapons were

brought into libya during the recent hearings which then secretary of state clinton had in the house of representatives one of the congressman said that they had information that cut out with a wink and nod as he put it from the united states brought in twenty thousand tons of weapons into libya and you know twenty thousand tons you can arm a small terrorist army and so on of course this is exactly what has happened in mali definitely we see a spillover from the libyan crisis to to a neighboring country and most likely the spillover has affected other places as well for instance it may well be there are many indications to that effect that the terrorist attack. in the in the jury had something to do i mean close to the libyan border also had some sort of libyan connection in terms of people maybe weapons terrorists emanating from libya participating in that attack.

and that interview in full for you today here still ahead more tension. as egypt's opposition to bring supporters to the streets. for the former president of the. environmental. outraged by the authorities decision to go ahead with a multi-billion dollar gas project that story in a few minutes. mission . could you take should be free. free. free. free. free. free. video. free media.

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the touch. of the news continues now the latest reports on the blast in a mine in russia's northern komi republic emergency services now say seventeen people have been killed by an explosion they also say one person is still missing the blast happened eight hundred meters below the surface well more than two

hundred fifty underground well he said he has more for us. we know that at least two hundred forty two people have been evacuated from the mine immediately after the explosion that is the safety that created at one point there were several people who were missing looks like most of them have been recovered unfortunately i didn't that we also know that immediately already a program has been set up in order to help financially the families of those couple of lost their relatives say in the blast that so compensation should be in the amount of about two million illegals and that is roughly sixty six thousand dollars and really limited because of the blast seemed a gas explosion and in the mine you have to mention here that there has been no fire immediately following the blast and that could be said to be a fortunate thing because otherwise of course we'd be looking at a death toll would be significantly higher there has been a criminal case launched also into the possible breach of security measures at

the mine blast this is this is looking like the biggest in terms of death toll. mine accident over the past year and russia. suicide rates are soaring in the u.k. with money worries pushing many over the edge cuts to mental health services and aggressive debt collecting cited by experts as major factors aggravating the situation. one mother who lost a child to debt despair. for the last year and a half and thorn has been coming to terms with the tragic death of her son aged just twenty three toby took his own life riding his spinal words on the back of a bank statement after racking up a three thousand pound overdraft and a five thousand pounds student debt it was just a shock this wasn't from one but had a history of depression or mental illness or even had come across as being down all the press to. you know in the last few weeks months of his life if anything he came

across as someone that you know didn't have a care in the world following his death and became a trustee for the charity piracy which aims to prevent suicide among young people from a home in cornwall she even runs her own blog giving advice but it's a battle her charity and similar ones around the u.k. are struggling to when suicide is on the increase according to latest figures accounting for six thousand deaths between twenty ten and twenty eleventh's a rise of seven percent so why being increase while an inquest ruled that toby's financial problems were a contributing factor to his suicide attacks but it's nice a bit amazing u.k. economy is partly to blame for the recent deaths nationwide areas of high unemployment such as camden here in london are among those worst affected and it's a problem compounded by cutbacks in mental health services a double whammy effect of the recession is that the people are becoming more

distressed more anxious and therefore more at risk of wanting to take their own lives at the same time whether sterrett and cuts means that we have fewer psychiatric beds that the crisis care isn't there and if that isn't enough the growth of same day loan companies and intimidating debt collectors are adding to the pressures people are feeling according to researchers at brighton university we have some very very good regulations that protect people like it's problematic let things plastic debt collection however here's the big tick leap well it's because these practices us do it in response the u.k. government has announced plans to crack down on aggressive bailiff's from next year late night visits will not be allowed and restrictions will be put on what property can be seized they are also spending over a million pounds on research as part of a suicide strategy plan. but that is only one very small step in the right

direction for someone like. one thing i've learned more about than i ever wanted to know but i've done a lot of reading and rethought and it's strangely complex hopefully entirely the trend will go down when we need to be. andrew farmer from london we have more stories and great pictures for our website of the military dot com here's a quick glimpse at what we've lined up for you there at the moment u.s. prison barack obama looks set to restart a key focus of his politics nuclear weapons production possibly tempting russia with a potential big money saving and find out more about that at the moment on the website plus also there. you go for sure what you'll be doing tomorrow well if not a u.s. defense giant may be able to help you you can now predict your future steps and even behavior just by collecting social network data more about that online right

now. with ukraine refusing to pay gallows problems recent seven billion dollars gas bill authorities in kiev are working on enlisting western companies to explore shale gas reserves however the controversial method proposed to boost the country's coffers isn't going down well with environmentalists. as this report. it was described as the day of ukraine's energy independence when in november last year he signed a one billion dollar agreement with a spanish utility to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on the black sea coast delight quickly turned into dismay when it emerged that the man signing the deal had nothing to do with the company three months later ukraine's leaders were shaking hands again this time with boiled dutch shell having signed a real deal to explore and develop the country's potentially he would shale gas

reserves reportedly the third largest in europe for. the expectation is about eight to ten billion cubic meters of gas production per year and the highest is up to about twenty two twenty five once it's operational we will strive to fully meet our domestic energy needs and to even become an exporter. this is definitely sweet music to for years ukraine has been striving to reduce its relies on. russia especially now when gas. was seven billion dollars for violating gas agreements this project is definitely good we would pay between one hundred fifty to one hundred eight dollars per cubic meter of gas instead of the four hundred fifty dollars we're now paying to gasp but if everything is so promising why are people out in force against the shale gas initiative. the second sure know if not worse for years ukraine has often been divided on many different

issues from perception of history to the official number of state languages and then you shale gas initiatives are no exception even sworn political enemies hardline nationalists and communists have put their differences aside and spoken out against the plan the opposition even proposed a bill prohibiting the exploration and extraction of shale gas but a matter of. information on how the gas split between shell chevron and the printing companies for this class it is still a lot of the earth is going to be profitable plus the companies don't care to be to the environment. but political battles of size ecologists are the most concerned with a potential threat from the shale gas program which could lead to a full blown defeat but whenever they speak out the pro-government media labels them as agents. say usually and different camera schools that extract more gas from the rocks so the underground system which provides fresh drinking water is

completely destroyed that this water is a strategic ecological resource and when one spoil it the area becomes practically non-viable. even in the most optimistic scenario ukraine may see its own shale gas filling its pipes only in a decade from now ecologists insists they're not against shale gas and grain simple just that the potential environmental impact from its extraction needs to be researched and assessed before drilling begins they have already sent a letter to the president the question is whether those at the top will be willing to listen let's see russia. reporting from kiev in ukraine. egyptian security forces are on high alert after the country's opposition announced mass rallies to mark two years since the fall of former president hosni mubarak over a dozen parties have declared their intent to march on top of his square and the presidential palace to step up pressure on the current leader mohamed morsy

pro-democracy protesters are accusing president morsi of betraying the revolution by perpetuating kidnapping and political repression several egyptian regions are currently in a state of emergency after deadly clashes erupted across the country during the two year anniversary of the uprising opposition spokesman ahmed who already says creating a coalition government is the only way to quell the unrest. people are gonna go into the streets they are going on the streets willingly they don't really need any opposition calls for due process because the whole country is in a standstill there's nothing moving forward because there is no real administration at blessing the people's needs and the people demand and the actual anger in the streets so the only solution that i can see and any sane person can see that the opposition the most of what the with all the all the different political factions to be in a court of government that would be the only solution and the only way out because

at that moment this government will take responsibility for any reform that's going to be as one of the happening of the country but the idea of just excluding everybody out of the government post revolution country in a country that's acting that's calling for democracy where there is no real parliament in session that can hold the president or the government accountable to the failures that administering the country and then refusing to have a quality of government that's just a call for chaos. twenty five minutes past the hour in the russian capital more international news in brief for you and our world up late at least three people have been killed when a gunman opened fire in a courthouse in the u.s. state of delaware into the lobby of the building and far at least five shots one of the victims is thought to be the wife of the attacker two officers of the court were also wounded the identity of the suspected shooter remains unclear. the government and opposition in bahrain of launch a new round of reconciliation talks the first such meeting in two years

a political crisis for reform campaigners recording on the government to deal with police brutality and perceived discrimination meanwhile the opposition has cast doubts on the intentions of the talks saying they're just a bluff to commun rest i should say there's too much power concentrated in the hands of the sunni. at least ten people have reportedly been killed and dozens injured after a car bomb exploded at a crossing on the turkey syrian border the explosives were reportedly packed into a car carrying humanitarian aid most of those killed are said to be syrian nationals dozens of ambulances were dispatched to the scene here has been a focus of violence in the almost two year long battle between syrian rebels and government forces. an indian official has resigned following a deadly stampede at a railway station that killed thirty six hindu pilgrims incident reportedly cut off the roadway officials announced a last minute change a platform tens of millions gathered on the banks of the ganges river to take

a dip marking the religious festival held every twelve years. well out to bring it up to date and i'll be back with a news team with more for in about thirty five minutes from now in the meantime a report on how household rubbish has become a vital lifeline for young palestinians. will. we speak your language or not at the. school music programs and documentaries in spanish what matters to you breaking news a little turn it into angles kid stories. you hear. it all to spanish find out more visit i to al

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ability. to come back to you. oh god. oh my. god i don't like to get up and come down.